Partly because of my just released novel, Little Bird and the Tiger, which, among other themes, explores the tension between tradition and modernity in the Meiji period, the thought of Amur (Siberian) tigers come to mind. They are the largest big cats – growing up to 400 kilos. As you surely know, they live in the far north, surviving comfortably in weather under -50 degrees centigrade.They hunt and kill brown bears (!) When they attack, they simultaneously bite and also clamp down with their spread armed fore-paws, both teeth and claws penetrating the body of their prey as if it is one giant set of jaws. Such an attack has the spread of the bite of a tyrannosaur. They are rare, they are marvelous, and may soon go extinct.
